Andrea Dovizioso satisfied with Yamaha debut

Andrea Dovizioso was satisfied with the start to his Yamaha career in Valencia today after he posted the seventh best time on the opening day of 2012 testing at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit.

The Italian completed a handful of laps on the YZR-M1 800cc machine to understand the difference in characteristics between the Honda RC212V machine he rode to third place overall in 2011.

He then completed more than 45 laps on board the new YZR-M1 1000 machine to clock a best time of 1.33.859.

That was 1.673s slower than Dani Pedrosa, who logged a best time of 1.32.186 on his last lap to finish 0.136s clear of Repsol Honda team-mate Casey Stoner.

The former 125GP world champion told MCN: “The first three laps I went out on the 800cc bike and the rest of the day I tested the 1000cc Yamaha. My first impression of the bike is very nice. I don’t want to compare the Yamaha and Honda. I never had any problem with the Honda.

“What I can say about the Yamaha is that the stability of the brakes is very good, you can brake very hard and the rear does not slide. The engine braking system works really good and that is very good for my style. We just had one day, so we only had four exits with the 1000cc, which is not many.”

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Cal Crutchlow got his first chance to test Yamaha’s new 1000cc contender and he set a best time of 1.33.652 in a 75-lap stint to finish fifth quickest.